Chapter Text
Peter was excited, it was the first time in a long time that he had experienced the feeling. Six months ago his Aunt May had died. A drug addict had been admitted to the hospital she was a nurse at and there had been a struggle to get him down so they could take a look at him. May had gotten pushed and hit her head on the corner of a table in the fall. It was a freak accident but that made it no less devastating. The twenty year old college student had been an absolute mess. Mr. Stark had really stepped up by taking him in. Mr. Stark had been putting money into an account for him for years, because he didn’t believe in unpaid internships like other companies. “There is no reason you young people can’t learn as you go, pay your dues and all that jazz AND get paid while you’re at it.” he huffed at Peter’s protest over the money.
Peter felt a little weird because while he certainly learned a lot from Mr. Stark he most certainly was not paying his dues….whatever that meant. He did go down to lower floors to help out. Ms. Potts had suggested it years ago. She said it was great to play around with Mr. Stark but he should get to know the other interns and some of the workers of S.I. After actually going down to talk to people he realized that her suggestion had to do with the air of mystery that had surrounded him that he had never been aware of. Everyone was aware of Mr. Stark’s personal intern but no one knew anything about him. Which made Peter feel a little bad when it seemed like a lot of the older employees thought he was some spoiled brat nephew or something. Which he supposed was better than them thinking he was Mr. Stark’s illegitimate son.
Mr. Stark had decided to take him in so he wouldn’t have to be alone. Peter had protested but in the end admitted it was nice. Plus he did have a bedroom at the Avenger’s compound so he could still patrol easily. Though after Mr. Stark found out he was running himself into the ground by trying to patrol when ever he wasn’t in class he had been benched for awhile. Assignments had been thrown together at the last minute, he forgot to eat,and sleep did not matter. All he could think about was that if he had been patrolling maybe he could have done something different. Right now his patrol schedule is very limited which was better. Karen did monitor him and let Me. Stark know if he wasn't okay.
He had started to visit Dr. Strange at his inner sanctum. Mr. Stark hadn’t been thrilled at first but it was hard to argue after visiting with Dr. Strange Peter had started to pick up the pieces of his life. Slowly the two men started to talk and went from reluctant friends to more than that. Peter felt a little bad about that because he had been planning something for a few months. It was funny how alike Dr. Strange and Mr. Stark were. He was misleading them both. They thought he was getting better but he had been pretending. He needed people to stop worrying about him so much.
Peter was putting the finishing touches on the machine he was working on. It was going to take him back in time so he could save May. Mr. Stark says there was nothing he could have done and even if he had happened to be out as Spider-man at that time it wouldn’t have changed anything. But Mr. Stark was wrong. With this machine and the spell he had snuck out of the sanctum he would be able to go back and Spider-man could do his damn job.
“Peter, when was the last time you slept?” FRIDAY asked. “You have the certain….cagey air about you that Boss gets as well.”
Peter thought. “I don’t know….what day is it FRI?”
“It is Tuesday the 15th.”
“Then two days. It’s fine, I’m on spring break.” he answered, trying to focus on setting up the spell.
“I’m afraid I must initiate the Time For Bed protocol set up by Ms. Potts.” the AI warned.
“No need Fri. I’ll sleep when I get back.” he said before pushing the start button. The machine started to hum to life and the keyboard lit up. Though when the machine started to spark and smoke Peter’s eyes widened. There was a flash of light and everything went black.
When his eyes open Peter gives a groan of pain.He blinks a few times and frowns, the sky above him is dark. Nighttime? It had been the middle of the afternoon when he had been in the lab.
“Ohmigod you’re alive!”
Peter opened his eyes after closing them for a few moments and saw there was a blonde woman with pigtails now leaning over him.
“Geeze I thought I had found a dead body….again.” the woman complained.
“Again?” he croaked out as he tried to sit up.
The woman just shrugged. “Hey it’s Gotham.”
“Gotham? Peter repeated as he looked around. He was laying in what looked like a dirty alley. Gross.
“Yeah it ain't pretty but hey….it’s home.” the woman shrugged with a smile.
“I don’t know where that is.” Peter replied. “Aren’t we in New York?”
Now it was the blonde that looked confused. “New York? Where’s that?”
“You have a Brooklyn accent. It’s in New York!” Peter’s head hurt.
“Brooklyn? Nope…..you hit your head kid?”She seemed worried.
“I….I’m not sure.” Peter admitted still looking around. When he saw his broken machine he groaned. Slowly things were clicking. He was in a place called Gotham, a place he had never heard of. He was talking to a woman who didn’t know what New York was. He remembered it had been afternoon and now it looked to be night time. His machine had worked...until it didn’t. Maybe the spell hadn’t been right? Dr. Strange said magic could be unpredictable if you didn’t know what you were doing. Maybe he was in a different universe.
“I’m Peter Parker.” he said as he slowly made his way to his feet. He swayed a little but didn’t fall over. He took that as a win.
“Harleen Quinzel.” the blonde smiled. “But you can call me Harley!”
Peter shook her hand and was relieved to see that his Stark watch was still on. It housed the nanobot suit Mr. Stark made him, that they had called Iron Spider. He wasn’t sure how well it would work with the theory he had going. “Harley….this might sound weird but I think I’m not in the right universe.”
He expected to be called crazy. “Nah….sounds like a pretty normal thing for Gotham.”
Peter shook his head wow Gotham sounded...well a lot like New York
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harley had been on her way home when she saw some weird flash of light and a crash come from the alley she had just passed. This was Gotham so the smart thing to do would be to keep on walking, but curiosity got the better of her and she went to investigate. Cautiously she crept forward and was surprised to see a young man passed out. He looked like he wasn’t hurt but she wouldn’t know for sure by just looking. She decided to just wait a bit. There was some broken machine close by but she wasn’t sure if it was connected to the kid.
A groan caught her attention and she gave a sigh of relief. She didn’t want to deal with a dead body. Harley really wished that the idea of someone coming from another universe or dimension could be called weird. But like she said...this was Gotham. There was only one thing to do.
“Come on kiddo I’ll take you home and we’ll figure something out!” she smiled watching as Peter gathered up his broken machine. So it did have to do with him. Good to know. She led the way to an apartment building. After fishing her keys out of her purse she opened the door.
“Pammy I’m home! And I brought a surprise home.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```
Peter’s mind was a blur of chaotic thoughts. He had to figure out where he was and how to get home. He had messed up and had to fix this.
“Pammy I’m home! And I brought home a surprise!”
Peter looked up as a beautiful woman came out from another room. A beautiful woman with red hair and green skin. Okay he was starting to think Gotham might be weirder. He watched as the woman, Pammy, stopped and her smile turned into a frown.
“For the love of…..Harley I told you to stop bringing strays to the apartment!”
“Uh…..hi…..I’m Peter.” he awkwardly introduced himself.